The Life of House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth [AUDIO]

WJON's My Life series brings us to State Representative and House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring.  Demuth for the first 7 years of her life grew up in Paynesville with her mother and plenty of extended family in the area.  She explained it was a challenged for a mixed race person to grow up in the 1960s in rural Minnesota.  The family moved to the metro area where Lisa was enrolled at a small private school before moving to many different schools in the metro area before graduating from Bloomington Kennedy High School.

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Following high school Lisa worked for a title company taking title insurance in Minneapolis as a file clerk.  She worked there for about a year and a half.  Demuth moved to Illinois for 3 years before returning to Minneapolis for a short period of time.  She moved back to Paynesville and worked for Community First Bank as an insurance officer.  She became involved in the Jaycees and met her husband, Nick, because he was a business owner and was also involved in the Jaycees.  Lisa and Nick were married after a year of knowing each other and stayed in Paynesville until 1998 before moving to Cold Spring because of their involvement in the church there.

Lisa stayed home with her and Nick's combined 4 kids and remained involved at church taking on leadership roles at church and with her kids daycare.  When the opportunity presented itself with an opening on the school board Lisa decided to run as a write-in candidate.  She won and went on to serve 3 terms on the ROCORI school board.

Demuth was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 when her two youngest kids were 13 and 16 years old.  She said there was a lot of fear when she was first diagnosed.  She underwent surgery to remove the cancer.  She was able to overcome the cancer and has been cancer free for 13 years.

On Memorial Day of 2018 she decided not to seek a 4th term on the ROCORI school board.  She received a call that same year from State Representative Jeff Howe.  He asked her to run for his seat because he chose to run for State Senator.  After consideration she chose to run for House District 13A.  She was elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2020 and 2022.  Demuth became the House Minority Leader in 2022 and has served in that capacity since January.

If you'd like to listen to my 4-part conversation with Lisa Demuth it is available below.